[Wrap-Up] November 2019

Oh, November. This month started off with a wicked migraine. I ended up leaving work early on the 1st and took some time to just relax. That certainly reminded me of a quote that I read recently, “If you don’t pick a day to relax, your body will pick one for you.” I NEED to make more time for myself.

Luckily the following day, the migraine was mostly gone. So we headed over to our friends, the Sherman’s, new house to help them unpack the moving trucks. Their house is AMAZING. I’m so excited for them and cannot wait to go visit again once they have had time to set everything up.

The next weekend, I traveled to Maine to see my best friend Arthur and his amazing wife while we celebrated baby Everly who will be arriving in February! During this trip, I was able to take photos of the shower for them, as well as some maternity shots! Check some of those photos out here.

These two also gifted Alex and I a lovely housewarming gift!

This month, I also had a fun family portrait shoot for a family that I have been doing photo shoots for for three years now! I cannot believe how much their little guy has grown up in just three years! He’s such a polite little guy.

This month I also got to visit Mainely Murders with Alex! It was freezing, but I was SO excited to be there! Stay tuned for a full post about that!

At work, they installed an art gallery wall! I can’t wait to see the different artists that they feature here. These paintings are by Cheryl Vratsenes.

My coworker, Giselle gifted me a Yellow Jasper stone! Yellow Jasper is a stone with a strong protection of energy. “It connects with the vibration of the wearer to assist in the balancing of energy. This stone has a slow moving effect in providing change, but patience allows for a much needed positive transformation.” (Quote via mycrystalpedia) And what a wonderful time for this stone to come into my life!

I was also gifted a set of Moonology Oracle cards! Shout out again to my amazing friend Morgan for the surprise gift ! And of course, shout out to Giselle for showing them to us!

This month was also where we saw the “decade challenge” popping up all over the place. Below was mine. When I posted this to Instagram, my caption was: 2009 vs 2019. Less tan, darker hair, equally as excited about the little things in life 🙂

We had a quite Thanksgiving. We stayed local this year. Of course, as soon as that was over, I set up our tree and Christmas decor! I cannot wait to celebrate the holidays in our new home!

This month was filled with LOTS of yard work. My gosh, the amount of time I spent raking and bagging up leave and pine needles this month… We didn’t finish the yard… but we know to start earlier next year!

Without further delay, let’s dive in to my monthly wrap-up!

My Reading Breakdown for November:

• 5 Stars- 5
  • Chills & Creeps: Eight Scary Stories by Nick Clausen
  • Chills & Creeps: Eight Scary Stories Vol 2 by Nick Clausen
  • Dead Meat: Day 2 by Nick Clausen
  • The Horror Collection: White Edition by Kevin J. Kennedy
  • Samurai Slasher – Late Fees
• 4 Stars- 2
  • Sworn Guardian (Forbidden Magic, #1) by T.L. Branson
  • The Tale of Sawney Bean by Kevin J. Kennedy
• 3 Stars- 1
  • The Horror Collection: Black Edition by Kevin J. Kennedy
• 2 Stars- 0
• 1 Star- 0
• DNF- 0

Monthly Musings

Watching: 

The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes (2019 TV Series) – 5/5
I forgot to mention this on my wrap-up for last month! If you’re a true crime fan, you gotta check this one out! I love that Paul Holes is doing this show and helping to bring cases back into the light so they can work on solving them.

The Office (Series) – 5/5
Alex and I continued watching this series. We’re making great progress!

The Mandalorian (Disney+ Series) – 5/5
Oh my gosh, this series is SO good!

Swiss Family Robinson (1960 Film) – 3/5
Thanks to Disney+ I got to rewatch this film for the first time in a VERY long time! Ernst is definitely my favorite character of the film!

Unbelievable (2019 Netflix Mini Series) – 5/5
OH MY GOSH THIS CAST!! Toni Collette and Merritt Wever are two of my favorites! And Kaitlyn Dever did such an amazing job. This show made me incredibly uncomfortable. A lot of it made my chest fee tight. What a powerful show. If this one doesn’t win awards i’ll be very upset!

Marry Poppins Returns (2018 Film) – 2/5
Oh boy, I didn’t enjoy this one very much. I LOVE Lin Manuel Miranda, so I had really high hopes for this.. But the only scene I really enjoyed was the chimney sweep dance.

Falling Inn Love (2019 Film) – 4/5
Ugh… I just can’t help but love cheesy hallmark-ish films. This one was so perfect. I highly recommend this one to fans of light romance films.

The Knight Before Christmas (2019 Netflix Film) – 4/5
Yeah, I started in on my holiday content already! This one was wicked cute. I love these cheesy holiday movies! My favorite line from this was, “Failure only happens when you give up.” I’m super curious to see if there will be another film to continue the story next year.

Let It Snow (2019 Netflix Film) – 3/5
Oh my goodness. This was so well done. I had previously read the book by by John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle and didn’t love it, but the film was fun to watch! I probably wouldn’t ever watch this a second time, but it was definitely worth watching once.

Klaus (2019 Film) – 5/5
Oh lordy, these Christmas movies keep making me cry! This one was AMAZING! It reminded me a bit of The Emperors New Groove. I really loved this one! I would definitely watch this one again.

Christmas in the Wild (2019 Netflix Film) – 2/5
This was another cute one, but one I wouldn’t rewatch. I love Rob Lowe and seeing all of the elephants was fun. But man, a lot of the script and acting was very cringe-worthy.

Holiday Rush (2019 Netflix Film) – 5/5
Oh my goodness. This film was perfect! The story line is super sweet and that focus on family was wonderful. I just love Sonequa Martin-Green!

The Princess Switch (2018 Netflix Film) – 4/5
Oh, Vanessa Hudgens… This movie was so cute. Bits of it didn’t make sense, but if you can look past that, it’s wonderful. I would definitely watch this one again.

Playing: 

Trivia! I finally made it back to trivia TWICE this month! The first time I went, I visited a bar I’d never been to and really liked the space. When we went to the second place, we had a group of 16!

Drinking:

At each trivia event, I had sour beers!

The first was a peach one called Lil’ Peach of My Heart.

The second was a really great sour beer called Red Light, Green Light! This is one I will definitely be keeping an eye out for!

One night, we had our friends Rob, Amber, and Max over to see the house and hang out for a bit. They came bearing gifts of Blushing Monk from Founders… AMAZING. This may just be my all time favorite beer.

Listening to:

True Crime Bullshit (Podcast)
Another item for true crime fans to check out! I binge-listened to the first season over the course of a few days, which covers the case of Israel Keyes. Just be careful with this one if you don’t like to hear recordings of the people talking through their crimes. I personally like this podcast as the host really gives you all the facts, and explains everything in a clear way. I find the recordings of Israel Keyes to be very interesting, but obviously very disturbing.

On episode 209 of the What Should I Read Next podcast, Anne Bogel featured a reader named Jamie who gave a shout out to I’ll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara. I LOVED this episode so much. I also visited the site to leave Jamie some recommendations for more true crime books and podcasts. Listen to the episode here!

The Thing About Pam (Podcast)
UGH! This is another series that will make your blood boil. I cannot believe how quickly they sent someone to jail seemingly without even giving other things a second thought. I cruised through this one in just a couple of days.

Books In The Freezer (Podcast)
This podcast did an awesome episode on True Crime this month! Check it out here!

In the bookish community:
This month, I went to return the comment love from someone who visited my blog. When I clicked over to her blog, I started reading her posts and ended up commenting on all of them! I love finding bloggers that seem to have similar tastes as myself! Check out Reading in the Wildwood here!

Not sure what to buy people on your holiday list? Lauren Becker of Shooting Stars Mag can be your personal shopper! Check out this awesome project where she explains how she can help out with your shopping.

Barb from Booker T’s Farm reviewed a book that not only sounds amazing, but has a wonderfully heartwarming dedication page <3.

Emily of Emily The Book Nerd posted an awesome blog titled 10 ways to cope with mental health issues during the holidays.

Sophia from Bookwyrming Thoughts created a wonderful quiz! Go find out What Kind Of Blogger You Are here!

Kelsey of There’s Something About created a wonderful list of bookish gifts!

Reel Literature also created a list of bookish stocking stuffers!

Monthly bookish related haul:

These are the three physical books I got. But I was also sent a slew of ebooks from Kevin J Kennedy and I cannot wait to dive into each of them!!

My favorite bookish photo this month:

In Case You Missed It:

• [Wrap-Up] October 2019
• Blog Updates- Bookstagram & New Logo!
• A PERSONAL FAVOR…
• Now Back On Bloglovin!
• A Shout-Out To USB Memory Direct

Looking forward to: 

December is looking to be another busy month, but I am determined to make some time to relax. Of course, I’m really looking forward to the holidays! I love Christmas so much.

Thanks for reading!
How was your month? Have any special plans for December? I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below!